She said: 'Essential oils have a huge influence in our daily lives. They can enhance our mood, help us relax and unwind or focus our concentration, so it makes total sense that they can help us lose weight too.

Curb your appetite: An aromatherapist says daily whiffs of grapefruit oil should do the trick

'Of course healthy eating and exercise remain crucial to any weight loss programme, but, by harnessing the power of scent we can reduce the common hunger pangs that can throw us off track and even result in us breaking the diet completely.'

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For those who want to trim their waistlines, Eugeny recommends they carry a bottle of grapefruit oil in their handbag and then take three to five deep breathes of it at least six times a day to regulate their appetite.

Grapefruit is well known as a dieters' best friend because it has a low Glycemic Index and contains soluble fibre that the body takes longer to digest - making you feel fully for longer.

Scent of diet success? Another study found people who smelt olive oil then ate less in one sitting

Smell won't work as a long term diet aid as the body will adapt and switch off the sense that caused it to suppress the appetite

But can the scent alone make you feel fuller as Eugeny believes?

A study in 2013 did make similar conclusions when it found that the scent of olive oil helped people lose weight.

Professor Schieberle, who conducted experiments with a team of scientists at Munich's Technische Universitaet and the University of Vienna, found people 'adapted their eating habits' due to the aroma and consumed less calories after a whiff of the oil.

It has long been known that smell can influence the taste of food and increase our appetites.

But the European scientists recommended further studies be carried out to investigate the specific the link between the scent of olive oil on people's satiety levels.

Professor Tim Jacob, an expert on the science of smell at Cardiff University's School of Biosciences, previously explained to the Daily Mail why smells can influence what we eat.

'The link between taste and smell is well documented; 70 to 80 per cent of the flavour, and therefore enjoyment, of food is down to smell,' he said.

'When you have a cold, for example, you can barely taste what you're eating. And if something smells bad, we've evolved not to eat it, in case it makes us ill, or kills us.'

However, the professor does not think scent alone will work as a long term diet aid as Eugeny recommends.

He said: 'In my research, I've found that humans adapt to bad smells quite quickly; we end up switching off our senses to them. This is why pathologists can, over time, comfortably conduct autopsies or forensic scientists can examine murder scenes.'